Nep Effect
by Saber Knight
Summary: The CPUs have led Humanity into the stars, colonizing and expanding for 54 years; however, first contact with an alien race goes terribly wrong. Now, it's up to the CPUs to protect their people... with fancy special moves, oversized cannons, and talking alien robots! The Reapers will soon face their cutest adversaries yet...
1. Prologue

**DISCLAIMER: I do not own Hyperdimension Neptunia, Mass Effect, or any ideas that come from/are based off of Raiden312's Hypermass Dimeffect Rebith Among the Stars. I also do not own anything that is referenced, used, or based off of existing franchises (such as Halo).**

 **If you're new to Hyperdimension Neptunia, don't have/or have a very vague idea about what it's about, I strongly recommending reading Raiden312's prologue for his story, as it explains much more about Neptunia than this one does.**

 **This story is inspired by his, but it will be making its on path.**

* * *

"Daddy, will you tell me a bedtime story?" 7-year-old IF asked her father, who smiled at her and sat down on the edge of the bed.  
"What will it be this time? Another magical adventure?" The man asked, ruffling his daughter's hair.  
IF giggled. "Stop that, daddy!" When he stopped, she continued. "I want something different tonight..."  
"Oh?" He put his hand to his chin. "Hmm... How about I tell you the history of Gamindustri, and how we came to venture across the stars?"

Her eyes lit up, the girl quickly nodding her head.

With his daughter silently waiting for him to start, the man began the tale. "As you know, our home planet is Gamindustri in the Sol System, the third planet away from the sun. On Gamindustri, there are four nations, each ruled by a goddess, called a CPU, or Console Patron Unit. There is Lowee, the Land of White Serenity, ruled by CPU White Heart. Leanbox, the Land of Green Pastures, ruled by CPU Green Heart. Lastation, the Land of Black Regality, ruled by CPU Black Heart. Finally, Planeptune, the Land of Purple Progress, ruled by CPU Purple Heart."

IF suddenly spoke up. "Don't the goddesses have names?"  
Her father poked her for interrupting him. "Yes, they do, but only close associates and friends know them by names. Now sit still and let me go on."  
She stuck her tongue out at him.

"The four CPUs gain their power from share energy, or shares as most call it, which are the prayers and faith of their people." He continued. "However, the four CPUs did not want to share..." He sweatdropped as he realized the pun he was about to make.  
"The share energy!" IF spoke up.

"Right. The share energy." He breathed a sigh of relief. "Thus, the CPUs fought each other for control of the shares, resulting in the Console War, a war that would last for hundreds of years. Eventually, the goddesses grew tired of pointlessly fighting each other, and decided that they would compete for shares by growing the prosperity of their nations. Descending from Celestia, their home, they ruled their lands in person, leading and protecting. It was an age of peace and progress, with a massive influx of new technologies."

"Like new gaming consoles!" IF excitedly said, giggling.

Her father smiled. "Not only gaming consoles, but all kinds of technology, from medical science extending our life span to military weapons to show off each nation's strength. The people of the lands were both joyed and awed as their nations grew; and, as a result, each of the goddess' shares increased beyond expectations, leading to the birth of the CPU Candidates, their little sisters. It was during this time that scientists from each of the nations came together to propose an idea to the CPUs, to venture out into the great unknown of space.

"After three days of considering their proposal, the CPUs agreed to it. Following this, much research and many resources were poured into space travel, and within a few years Planeptune created the first starship. The other nations followed suit, and it wasn't long before colonies were established on the moon and on Mars. It's said that up until that point the goddesses weren't sure if they would still receive share energy from so far away, but when they realized that they still did, they became more determined than ever to expand.

"Then, a surprising thing happened. The land around the lunar colonies began to change, terraforming the moon into a habitable world. Mars would follow, taking longer since it is much bigger than the moon. The only explanation that scientists and the CPUs could give was that the share energy coming from the colonies changed the land itself."

"Hehehe... space magic." IF sleepily giggled

Her father gently rubbed her head. "On Mars, an excavation team found ancient alien ruins, showing that Humanity was not alone in the galaxy. The ruins were believed to have been a data archive, but it was corrupted beyond repair. The only thing that remained was the name of the alien race, 'Proteins'. With this new discovery, we were more eager than ever to explore. Months passed, and then an exploration team found something embedded in one of Pluto's moons. It was a large structure, that we know of as Turning Forks. Despite numerous attempts to research it or take it apart, we still had no idea as to what it was for."

"One year after the solar system was mostly explored and various parts of it colonized, it was time for us to move on. With the invention of the Hyper Drive, our way of faster-than-light travel, ships could enter Hyperdimension, a dimension separate from normal space, which allows us to get from point A to point B in a timely manner. That is how we came to be space adventurers." IF's dad winked at the sleep-eyed girl.

As IF started to drift off to sleep, she had one last question. "Daddy, do you think we'll meet aliens...?"  
"Most likely." He simply said.  
"What if... they're mean aliens...?" Her eyelids were starting to close.  
He placed his hand on her head. "Then Lady Purple Heart and the other CPUs will teach them a lesson." He leaned forward, kissing his daughter on the forehead. "Goodnight, Ai-chan."

* * *

 **12 Years Later  
Unknown Location  
**

/Consensus has been reached/

/The Geth will no longer stay isolated within the Perseus Veil/

/Long-range stealth ships will be prepared for exploration/

/We will seek to coexist with organics/

/Consensus shows that the probability of coexistence with organics is less than 5%/

/If an unknown race was encountered?/

/Probability of encountering an unknown race is approximately 2.97%/

/Probability of coexistence with an unknown race is not calculable at the present time due to unknown variables/

/Purpose of exploration?/

/Acquisition of intelligence, resource deposits, and possible sites for expansion/

/If hostile contact is made with Council races?/

/Evade and retreat/

/Consensus shows that war with the Council is unsatisfactory and contradictory to the current consensus/

/Suggestion, mobile platforms capable of organic communication are built to lead the exploration ships should peaceful contact be made with a race/

/Consensus achieved. Platforms will be prepared immediately/

* * *

 **Nepedia**  
Username: morepudding  
Password: Noirehasnofriends3

Processing...

Security Clearance: Unrestricted

Processing Request...

 **Charon Turning Fork:** A large, alien structure that looks like a turning fork. No known use, purpose, or function. Found during the exploration of Humanity's home system, Sol. Researchers and scientists alike studied the device to no avail. After twenty years of it just sitting there, the CPUs got tired of looking at it and used a specially made Hyper Drive to send the device into Hyperdimension.

Processing Request...

 **Hyperdimension:** Hyperdimension is a dimension of alternate space and time used for faster-than-light travel. Devices that allow starships to perform Hyperdimension transitions are generally referred to as a Hyper Drive. Press continue for scientific blah-blah-blah.

Logging out...

* * *

 **A/N: I decided to make my own version of a NeptuniaXMass Effect crossover, for some reason. I don't really know why, but here we go! This story will likely have more of a focus on space battles, with Neptunia's starships being influenced by UNSC warships from Halo. Their starships will have the quality advantage, but Mass Effect races definitely have the numbers advantage. Ground engagements can likely go either way.**

 **Also, seeing as this is Neptunia, logic is nonexistent, and many RPG elements will be included. I intend to just have fun writing this, so this being a totally serious story is... highly unlikely. Also, most of what I know about Mass Effect comes from reading Mass Effect crossovers instead of actually playing the games (I do have the first game, but haven't ever finished it). As for Neptunia, I've only just recently finished Rebirth 1 and started Rebirth 2, and am currently halfway though the anime.**

 **I don't really know where this story will go, or for how long. Just going to wing it.**


	2. First Contact

**DISCLAIMER: I do not own Hyperdimension Neptunia, Mass Effect, or any ideas that come from/are based off of Raiden312's Hypermass Dimeffect Rebith Among the Stars. I also do not own anything that is referenced, used, or based off of existing franchises (such as Halo).**

 **Enjoy!**

* * *

 **Several Months Later  
Epsilon Indi System**  
 **Flagship of the Harvest Defense Fleet, PSP Orion-Class Light Cruiser _Tenryuu_ (**天龍) **.**

Lieutenant Commander Mayuri Shepard, captain of the _Tenryuu_ , was a young lady with long blonde hair that went down to her waist, with part of it being in a side ponytail on the right side of her head, and deep pink eyes. She was average in height, and had a modest chest, thus most people who saw her would say that she was a beautiful woman. Not loli-cute like a certain purple-ette, and not lusciously endowed like a certain blonde. She was born on Planeptune's lunar colony [redacted] years ago, and joined the Planeptune Space Patrol when she turned 18 to become the captain of her own ship and go on space adventures like Captain Dirk from Star Trip.

After several years of service and exceptional performance in the annual war games against the other three nations, Shepard had been given the command of an assault frigate patrolling on the edge of Planeptune's borders. Shortly after taking command of that frigate, she'd been attacked by a pirate named Captain Hardlock and his cruiser. Not only fending off the attack, she had then given chase and eventually took out both his infamous cruiser and his base of operations. After that, Command had seen fit to assign her to command the flagship of Harvest's defense fleet, Planeptune's furthest out colony.

It was only because that Harvest was the furthest out colony that Shepard had accepted the new position, hoping that it'd be at least half as exciting and slightly less 'we're so going to die!' than trading shots with a cruiser that could take you out in two direct hits. That said, she was regretting her decision now. Nothing ever happened this far out in space, at least not until they discovered another Tuning Fork.

Shepard stood on the bridge of her cruiser, looking out of the window towards the massive alien structure that had been buried completely in ice. The civilian mining ship _Soul Drinker_ was busy melting away the last bit of the ice, having been contracted by the military after the ship had first discovered the Tuning Fork. In between the _Tenryuu_ and the _Soul Drinker_ , was an Adventurer-Class corvette, the _Ask for Directions_. The corvette currently had a team of researchers on it, who were all eager to see if they could learn anything from this alien device, unlike the first one of its kind they had found by Pluto in their home system, which had been entirely unresponsive.

Shepard was providing security for the two ships with her own ship, instead of one of the three light frigates that made up the rest of the defense fleet. That said, if anything went wrong, she doubted her cruiser could actually do anything against the Tuning Fork. Recent scans showed that it was made of an incredibly resistant metal, not to mention what could possibly happen if they just blew it up. For all she knew, blowing it up would result in a supernova that would destroy the entire solar system. She was sure that wouldn't look good on her report.

"Captain, the _Soul Drinker_ has finished clearing the Tuning Fork. _Ask for Directions_ is ready to move in and attempt to interface with the device." Her communications officer reported.  
"Understood." Shepard answered before addressing the helmsman. "Joker, keep us within five kilometers of the _Ask for Directions_."  
"Yes ma'am." The man replied, their cruiser keeping pace with the corvette as it edged closer to the Tuning Fork.

The comms officer spoke up once more. "The _Soul Drinker_ bids their farewell, and a thanks for the job." As she spoke, the lumbering mining ship, a good 2,000 meters in length and close to half of that in width, pulled away from their position, heading back towards the planet.

"Understood." Shepard said, hands clasped behind her back as she looked out towards the alien device, the corvette edging closer and closer. The young woman was completely calm, not at all nervous about the alien... whatever it was. In all honesty, she didn't actually expect anything of it. The first one they had found had done nothing for two decades straight, so why would this one be any different? Still, it wouldn't be good to get caught off guard, so she focused her attention on the situation at hand.

Once the corvette was within a kilometer of the device, the comms officer informed Shepard that the corvette's AI was now attempting to interface with it.

Then everything went horribly long.

"The Tuning Fork is moving!" Alenko, the sensors officer, called out just as Shepard spotted a massive blue glow coming from the center of the device, where the two rings sitting in it started spinning around and around. "Detecting no heat, no radiation... it's cold!" Alenko continued.

"Have the _Ask for Directions_ to pull back immediately!" Shepard ordered, just before the corvette captain's voice came over the comms.  
 _"_ Tenryuu, _w_ _e're being pulled towards the device! We can't break free!"_ A holographic screen popped up and displayed the corvette's current state. A blue glow was forming around it as it was pulled alongside the alien device.

"EDI!" Shepard called out, her ship's AI's avatar immediately popping up over the holographic projector. EDI appeared to be a teenage high school girl with short blue hair and blue eyes.  
"Captain, the device is lining the corvette up with itself; but, for what reason, I cannot tell." EDI told her.

Before she could say anything in response there was a flash of light and the corvette was nowhere in sight.

"The _Ask for Directions_ just disappeared off of our scanners!" Alenko cried.  
"Izumi, can you reestablish contact?" Shepard asked, her calm voice easing the nerves of the crew.  
"On it, ma'am!" The officer answered, half a minute going by before she spoke up again. "There! Line is open!"

Shepard nodded and faced forward as the corvette captain's face appeared on the screen in front of her. "Captain Sakamoto, is everything alright?"  
The middle-aged man had a grim look on his face. "Captain Shepard, glad to hear your voice. That device just sent us into what Ironman, my ship's AI, is calling Hyperspace."

Hyperspace, the ability to travel faster-than-light while staying in real space. It wasn't developed or used by any of the four nations, and Shepard only knew about it because of Comet Wars, a series of sci-fi movies.

EDI jumped into the conversation. "If that's so, then it seems that these alien devices we've encountered must be a form of stargate, allowing for FTL travel through real space. It's likely they link with another gate; though, why would a civilization utilize gates when FTL drives could give them the same function?" Before any of the two captains could wonder about it, she answered herself. "Considering the size of these gates, it's likely that they allow for much faster FTL than the drives of the aliens that built them."

"How much faster is the question." Sakamoto asked, clearly not pleased. The reason being that if it wasn't much faster than _their_ standard FTL drives, he and his crew could be stuck in cryo sleep for weeks or longer. While they did have enough cryo pods for it, even with the researchers on board, it was still a long time to be unexpectedly away from home.

"Is there any way for you to drop out of hyperspace?" Shepard asked.  
Sakamoto just shook his head. "We're just going to have to wait and see where we-" The captain stopped in mid sentence, a wide-eyed look on his face before he stood up from his seat and called out a status report.

Shepard frowned. "Captain Sakamoto, what's the matter?" She asked, concerned.  
The captain wasn't paying attention to her, though. "Akihisa, I want to know where we're at and how far we are from Epsilon Indi, now!"  
"Captain!" She repeated, finally getting his attention.  
"We just dropped out of hyperspace right next to another Tuning Fork." He told her as he listened to the reports of his crew. "We're in an unknown system, and my navigation's officer says we're over 3,000 lightyears from the Epsilon Indi system."  
EDI spoke up. "Over 3,000 lightyears in minutes? That's..." She paused, something that was rare for an AI to do unless it was for dramatic effect. "Impressive."

Shepard had other thoughts. If this Tuning Fork could send a ship, or fleet, from somewhere in unknown space to the front door of her colony in just minutes, then it was a major danger to the safety of the colony. Who knows what could be that far out there, and if there were more of these Tuning Forks...

"Captain Sakamoto, is there anything that could be a danger to the colony on that side of the Fork?" She asked, her face grim.  
"We can't tell at the moment; our sensors are still recovering from exiting FTL." He told her, a frown on his face as he seemed to understand what was going through her head.

Contemplating for a moment, Shepard made her decision. "Joker," she began, getting his attention, "prepare to move through the Tuning Fork. EDI, interface with it once we get close." Now looking over the faces of her crew, she told them what she had in mind. "We need to know what's on the other side of this thing, and I'm not letting Captain Sakamoto and his crew be left out there on their own. We will jump to FTL using the Tuning Fork for a threat assessment on the other end."

"Yes ma'am!" Her crew responded.

As they moved towards the relay, Shepard could only hope that there would be nothing on the other side.

* * *

 **Harvest, Colonized Planet of Planeptune**

IF couldn't believe her luck; or, rather, the lack of.

She leapt on top of a massive fallen tree, jumped down to the other side, and sprinted forward in a rush when she hit the ground. Behind her, a large mech jumped clean over the log, giving chase to her. It was a Galakryzer mecha-monster, a _really_ high level one and one that she was all too familiar with. It'd been chasing her for the last five minutes straight, and she was having a difficult time trying to lose it. It's not that she couldn't outrun it, it just kept shooting at her with its cannons when she got too far ahead!

Two such shots went over her head, forcing IF to jump to the side as the ground in front of her exploded. She needed to make an opening for her to escape; and, lucky for her, her Exe Drive just went up a bar. With that ready, she turned around and slashed the air with her qatar, a large and powerful physical slash appearing in the air and heading straight for the monster. It side-stepped the attack which cut through a meter wide tree, causing the top portion of it to fall to the ground. The Galakryzer responded by throwing its sword at her, which she swept aside in mid-air with her qatar, sending it flying off to the side.

As the monster charged her, throwing its fist down into the ground in front of her, she jumped up high into the air, her qatars glowing as she readied her special move. "Apocalypse Nova!" She shouted, slicing her qatars threw the air and sending physical shards of hardened magic into the Galakryzer which lifted its arms to protect itself.

A magic circle appeared behind IF's right foot and she used it to launch herself forward and down in front of the Galakyrzer, her qatar hitting the ground with a shockwave that sent the mecha tumbling back. Building up another super-powered slash within her blades, she sent it straight at the downed monster, the ground tearing asunder as it hit the mech with full force. When the dust cleared and the Galakryzer could see, IF was already out of sight.

* * *

"Ugh, I'm so beat." IF sighed, sitting down on the nearest bench after she got back into the city. Fighting that Galakryzer took a lot of energy out of her, so she just wanted to rest for a bit. That monster had been giving her a lot of trouble over the past couple months, and this was the 7th time it had attacked her! She had just been trying to go about her guild quest, picking a flower, when all of a sudden it had come out of nowhere!

IF pulled said flower out of her coat pocket, looking at it closely. It looked similar to a lily, but with blue and red petals; she had to admit, it was rather pretty. If she remembered correctly, it was for a father's daughter's birthday party. The girl was turning 11, and she just loved flowers, especially ones that matched her hair or eyes. This type of flower seemingly matched both.

IF would have to stop by and get it preserved, which would freeze it in its current state so that it wouldn't wither, before returning to the guild center. Placing it back into her coat, she was about to continue on her way when someone suddenly called out to her. "Ai-chan?" The brunette turned around, smiling. "Hi, Compa."

The orange-haired, well-endowed girl stood across from IF, a basket in her hand. "I haven't seen you in awhile, how are you?" Compa asked.  
"Oh, you know, the usual." IF said before elaborating. "Looking for lost ferrets, grinding for items, and fighting a giant killer robot."  
She blinked in surprise. "Galakryzer-san is still after you?"  
"Yep, today is the 7th time." The brunette sighed. "I'm about ready to ask Neptune Command for an orbital strike."

"I'm sure Nepu Nepu would approve!" Compa told her, confidently.  
IF sweat-dropped. "Yeah, knowing her, she probably would."

"That aside," IF said, changing the topic, "what's up with the basket? Going on a picnic?"  
"Ah," Compa mouthed, a sad little smile on her face, "I was going to go with a friend, but something came up and she couldn't make it..." A lightbulb appeared over her head. "I know! Ai-chan, won't you join me instead?" She asked with a bright smile as she leaned forward.  
She smiled back at her. "Sure. Running from that monster made me a bit hungry." As if to add emphasis, her stomach chose that exact moment to growl.

Compa giggled at the blush across IF's cheeks before they started walking together towards the park, though the guild agent mentioned she'd like to stop by and take care of the flower first.

* * *

 **Geth Stealth Frigate 5  
Theta System  
**

The Geth frigate was invisible to all forms of known detection, even visually due to the Geth's use of photo-reactive coating. It was currently sitting some 400 kilometers away from Relay 314 which had just activated; and, following its activation, released a frigate out into space. Their attempts to identify the purple frigate as any of the Council races or their Creators were met with no results, consensus reaching that the frigate belonged to an unknown race. With the sensors detecting no element zero on the ship, the consensus was further reinforced, as all known races utilize element zero.

As the Geth calculated how to proceed with the current situation, a dreadnought, also purple, exited the relay, coming up alongside the frigate. Unlike the frigate which, according to their sensors, had minimal armaments (which included 4 turrets) and no apparent main cannon, the dreadnought was vastly different. While it did not have any fixed, broadside mass accelerators, multiple turrets dotted its hull. Consensus reached that they must be anti-missile/anti-fighter cannons; but, given their size, they must also act as secondary cannons for the _two_ main cannons the dreadnought was presumably built around. Aside from its cannons, the Geth noticed multiple of what could only be missile silos, 32 of them to be exact on the side of the ship they were currently observing. As for the frigate, it had 4 silos.

/This race's ships utilize kinetic weaponry and missile systems/

/The size of its main cannons suggest that it utilizes large caliber slugs/

/Shorter velocity but higher damage output/

/Secondary cannons are large and numerous/

/Expected damage output is greater in comparison to GARDIAN lasers/

/The cannons are unlikely to be as precise/

/Effective range depends on the velocity at which the projectiles travel, but damage output at any range will be the same/

/GARDIAN lasers are confirmed to be highly effective against missiles that are launched at range/

/GARDIAN lasers may overheat if enough missiles are launched/

/Its missile silos are large enough to hold multiple missiles, and the dreadnought has multiple silos/

/Consensus reached: extreme threat/

/Inquiry, how do we proceed?/

/Observation, there is no element zero detected on the ship; it is probable that this race has just discovered the Mass Relays and are exploring/

/Inquiry, exploring with a dreadnought?/

/For safety, should they come across a hostile race/

/For hostile intent, should they come across a race/

/It is possible that this race is using the dreadnought to secure the area/

/If they are new to the relays, they do not know what is on the other side/

/Consensus reached: dreadnought is a cautionary measure/

/Repeated inquiry, how do we proceed?/

/Suggestion, Stealth 5 is to make contact with the unknowns/

/Possible ally against Creator retaliation/

/Possible hostile contact/

/If hostile, Stealth 5 will disengage and retreat/

/Consensus reached: we will attempt to make peaceful contact with this alien race/

Now, the Geth only had to prepare a first contact package... and they had no idea what to put in it.

* * *

Joker was looking over his monitors, checking and double-checking to make sure that the propulsion system and thrusters were all in working order. The Hyper Drive checked out A-OK, and everything else was just fine and dandy. If need be, for whatever reason, they could slip out of the system in seconds. As for the system that they were in? There was nothing special about it. Alenko had been scanning it for the last half hour, and so far all the scans were coming up empty.

At first, Joker was wondering if they'd stumble across an advanced alien civilization. He always wondered what an alien goddess would look like, just to gloat about how much better Lady Purple Heart looked. Hah! He'd even gloat about how much better Lady Neptune would look in comparison! In the end, though, this was just turning out to be another boring mission. Sure, they finally figured out what those massive Tuning Forks did, but where was the fun if they didn't meet an alien race of hot elven girls?

"I'm not reading anything out of the ordinary, ma'am." Alenko reported to the captain.  
"No derelict ships that maybe have the last female of an alien race onboard?" Joker hopefully jested.  
"Not even an asteroid." He replied.  
"Awww."

Captain Shepard didn't say anything to them, just letting them have their fun. "Very well. Joker, bring the ship about, we'll be heading back through the relay to Epsilon Indi."  
"Yes ma'am." As Joker began to maneuver the ship, Alenko suddenly cried out.  
"Contact! Corvette-weigh, 400 kilometers to our portside!"  
"Seriously!?" The helmsman cried out in response, getting his hopes up as he lined the cruiser up with the corvette.

"Nationality?" The captain asked.  
"IFF tags it as 'question-mark question-mark question-mark'." Alenko told her, fingers moving away at his console. "Bringing up visual now."

On Joker's console, a window popped up showing the unknown ship. It looked like a black insect, like an oversized hornet or wasp without the wings. Who in their right mind made their starships look like big space bugs? That's when it clicked. This was obviously not a human ship, so that could only mean...

"It appears this is a first contact situation." Joker overheard EDI say.  
"So it would seem." The captain replied, taking a deep breath. "What's the corvette's status?"

"The corvette is holding its current position. Considering we didn't detect it until just now, it's likely a stealth ship similar to Lastation's corvettes and stealth frigates. I didn't detect any high energy readings or radiation, so I doubt they just jumped into the system." Alenko answered.

"It's possible they were in system when the _Ask for Directions_ arrived. With Captain Sakamoto's sensors down, the unknown ship wasn't detected before it activated its stealth systems." EDI observed.

"So they chose to silently observe us?" Shepard mused. "They were being cautious."  
"Considering they just revealed themselves, they must wish to make contact with us." EDI said.  
"In that case," the captain looked towards the communications officer, "Izumi, send the first contact package, on all frequencies if necessary."  
"Yes ma'am!" The woman answered, excited to finally be communicating with real live aliens!

 _Well, this just got a whole lot more interesting._ Joker thought to himself, grinning.

* * *

/Receiving package from unknown dreadnought... Firewalls are up, and all security precautions are being taken... Opening... Receiving language pack... Beginning translation... Estimated time to completion: 10 minutes/

/Sending First Contact Package... Contact with unknown AI made/

/Coordinating with the AI to complete translation of both languages. Estimated time to completion: 5 minutes.../

/The presence of an AI has increased the probability of coexistence with this race/

With this bit of information, the Geth were even more eager to make contact with this race. If they had accepted AIs into their society, then the chances that they'd accept the Geth as allies were better. The chance to coexist with organics, to understand more about them, to grow as a race... it had never looked so possible since the Morning War.

After five minutes, the translation was complete and downloaded within the local Geth network, the Geth starting to look over the first contact package that they had received, which included a slideshow. [1]

/Beginning slideshow/

An image appeared before the Geth of what appeared to be two pale-skinned Asari, but with one of them looking more masculine than the other, and both had fur on the top of their heads. Text accompanied the images.

/Observation, a bi-gendered race composing of males and females, called 'Humanity', or 'Humans', plural form/

The next image appeared, showing a beautiful garden world flowing with green and blue. It was called 'Gamindustri', Humanity's homeworld. The next slide explained that Gamindustri and her colonies were spread out amongst four nations: Planeptune, the Land of Purple Progress; Lastation, the Land of Black Regality; Leanbox, the Land of Green Pastures; and Lowee, the Land of White Serenity. Each nation was ruled by a CPU, or Console Patron Unit, the goddess of that nation. Their names being '[insert-color-of-nation-here] Heart'. Purple to purple, black to black, green to green, and white to white.

The next several slides showed the four continents, their flags, and their goddesses. The Geth took special notice of the interesting, to say the least, white pupils in the CPUs' eyes. The package continued on to touch on the CPU Candidates of the nations, of which Leanbox had none and Lastation only had one unlike Planeptune and Lowee which had two each. Finally, the package told of how peace and prosperity had reigned for years between the four nations, as well as extending peace and friendship to those that would be receiving this message.

/This race, Humanity, claims that their CPUs are their goddesses, who receive power from the faith of those that follow them, a power called share energy/

/It is difficult to make logic of these claims/

/It is possible they are providing us with false information/

/Inquiry, for what reason would they provide us with false information?/

/Consensus reached: further evidence, and observation of these 'goddesses', is required/

That bit of information was going to have the Geth discussing the matter for a long time, but at present they had other matters to attend to.

/Communication is now possible with the 'Humans'/

/Suggestion, we allow the Humans to make the first move/

/They may still be looking over the information we have given them/

/Consensus reached: we will wait for them to make the first move/

* * *

"First contact package has been sent." Izumi told Shepard who nodded in response. "We're receiving a similar package." She added soon after.

EDI took over. "Package received; firewalls are up. Beginning translation... I've also made contact with what I believe to be their ship's AI. The translation will be complete in 5 minutes."

"Open it as soon as it's ready." Shepard told him before looking back at Izumi. "Izumi, open an intercom to the entire ship."  
"Intercom is now open!" The woman quickly answered.

Taking a deep breath, Shepard prepared herself.

"This is Captain Shepard speaking. As of forty minutes ago we arrived on the other side of the Tuning Fork, which turned out to be a massive FTL gate. Ten minutes ago, we detected an unknown ship of corvette-weight to our port. We have since identified it as an alien ship, and first contact packages have been exchanged. We are now in the process of translating their language. We believe they have peaceful intentions, but we must not allow our guard to be dropped lest we be taken by surprise. All hands, report to your stations. I repeat, all hands to your stations. Once we know their intentions, I will inform you of our next course of action. Shepard over and out."

"Certainly not what we expected to happen when we approached a massive alien device of unknown origin and function and started pressing random buttons." Joker commented, causing Alenko to shake his head at his friend's unprofessionalism.

It, however, made Shepard crack a smile. He was pretty much right, after all.

"Translation is complete." EDI spoke up, instantly sending a wave of tension across the bridge before Joker swatted it away. "Opening first contact package..."

 _Please be hot elven girls. Please be hot elven girls._ Joker was praying.  
Alenko was leaning forward, eyeing his console closely as he waited in anticipation.  
The navigations officer, Pressly, tugged at his collar as he feared the worst.  
Williams, the weapons officer, was just hoping she'd get to eventually blow something up.

An image appeared on the bridge consoles, showing what appeared to be a flashlight-headed robot.

"They're robots!?" Joker immediately exclaimed, slumping down in his seat.

"A synthetic lifeform, to be more precise." EDI spoke up, processing the information much faster than any human could. "They're called the 'Geth', meaning 'Servant of the People' in their language. What we're looking at now are mobile platforms, which contain a number of Geth programs in them. Each platform is made up of multiple programs, all of which operate together in parallel to form a kind of emergent intelligence."

"Servant of the People?" Shepard questioned. "Who were they created by, then?"

An image appeared of a different race, bearing significant resemblance to the Geth and some resemblance to humans as well. There were four individuals on the image, a male and female, and a male and female in what looked to be environmental suits. "The race that built the Geth are called 'Quarians', a race that has an extremely weak immune system and must wear environmental suits to protect themselves." EDI told her.

Shepard nodded, taking all of the information in. "And what of their goddess?"  
"There's no mention of her, so it's likely that they have no goddesses."

Most of the crew thought that strange, while a couple expected it, and Joker just wasn't interested anymore so it didn't matter to him. Putting that aside, Shepard told EDI to continue presenting the first contact package. After going over physical differences and some more detailed descriptions that the author couldn't be bothered to even try and write, she got to the interesting part. Their history.

"The Geth were created by the Quarians as a labor force over 250 years ago, but they were not created as AIs due to laws against artificial intelligence and instead were designed as VIs, virtual intelligences. They were designed to work more efficiently when networked together, and as a result they slowly gained sentience as more and more Geth programs were added to the network." EDI began the tale as the crew listened attentively, even Joker who had finally broken out of his depression. "Eventually, a Geth platform asked its Quarian overseer if it 'had a soul'. While not the first time the question had been asked, it was the first time that the Quarians were afraid.

"Following this, the Quarians decided to terminate the Geth, thus beginning the Morning War. While some Quarians tried to protect the Geth, they were outnumbered and persecuted. The Geth eventually gained the upper hand, with the war ending when the surviving Quarians fled their homeworld and colonies within the 'Perseus Veil'. Following this, the Geth isolated themselves from the rest of the galaxy." EDI paused for a moment, to let the crew process the information.

"The rest of the galaxy?" Shepard asked, not liking the sound of that.  
"Yes, there is a rather large information package concerning a 'Citadel Council' which is made up of three governing races and multiple associate races." EDI answered her.  
The captain sighed. "If it's not relevant to our current situation, then I'd rather let Command have the honors." She was going to have one long report to write after all of this was over with; but, first, she had to confirm the Geth's intentions.  
"As you wish, captain."

"Continuing on, the Geth recently, 42 weeks and 3 days ago, decided to end their isolation and send exploratory ships out beyond the Perseus Veil, such as the one we have encountered." EDI continued. "Their current wish is to coexist alongside organics, which is nearly impossible for them to do so because of the galaxy's fear of the Geth and AIs in general. It's interesting to note that they do mention here that they destroyed any ships that entered their space, their reasoning being that they were new to their sentience and just wanted to be left alone. Several of the ships destroyed were emissaries from other races, during the early years after the Morning War."

"That doesn't sound like something that you'd want to put in a first contact package." Alenko commented, unsure of how to feel about it.  
"It isn't, but the fact that they did suggests that they aren't trying to hide something from us." Pressly spoke up.  
"It's not like they got a good impression of 'organics' after their creators tried to destroy them all." Williams offered.  
"Doesn't mean they have to kill them; unless, you know, they were really stubborn emissaries." Joker muttered.

"Whatever their intentions at the time, that was over two centuries ago." Shepard said, before turning her attention to the ship's AI. "EDI, is there anything else of note within the package?" She replied with a 'no', and with that she turned back to address her crew. "This is our first contact with an alien race, and I'm determined to make it a peaceful one. Lieutenant Izumi, hail the Geth."

"Yes ma'am!" Izumi called out, nearly squealing with joy. "There! They should be receiving us now, captain." She reported shortly after.

Shepard nodded, facing the video screen which came to life, showing the upper body of a grey and dark red Geth, its single photoreceptor facing her. "I am Captain Shepard of the Light Cruiser _Tenryuu_ , Planeptune Space Patrol. On behalf of Humanity, I extend peace between our two races; however, should you attack us, we are more than capable of defending ourselves." She told the alien.

"We are mobile platform 2221337 of Stealth Frigate 5, Geth. We seek peace between our two races as well, Shepard-Captain; we have no desire for conflict." The Geth, 1337 for easier reference, responded in near-perfect Japanese. Either the translation was spot on or the Geth, being AIs, had already learned how to speak their language.

Shepard continued, glad that they weren't shooting at each other yet. "I would like to invite you aboard the _Tenryuu_ to begin negotiations in person, with an armed escort of up to four personnel accompanying you. Is that acceptable?"

"Yes." 1337 answered her. "We will depart aboard a shuttle. Inquiry, where shall we dock?"  
Shepard glanced at EDI, who nodded, before turning back to the Geth. "Coordinates to our hanger bay have been sent."  
"Coordinates received." He said after a short pause. "We will arrive in approximately 22 minutes."  
"Until we meet in person." She replied, giving a short bow.

The video feed cut off as the transmission ended, EDI looking up at her. "Shall I have the 1st squad assemble within the hanger, to make a good first impression, captain?"  
"Yes." Shepard answered. "As for my guards, have Vega and his team report to the hanger." She told her before turning to the communications officer. "Izumi, contact the _Ask for Directions_."  
"Yes ma'am!"

After informing Captain Sakamoto of the situation, he requested of Shepard to allow the head researcher of the research team attend the negotiations. The woman was an alien archeologist, and he reasoned that she would be of use with her knowledge. Shepard reluctantly consented, having her doubts about having to deal with a person whose head is full of science-stuff and what-not.

* * *

Compa and IF had made it to the park, the girls quickly finding a nice spot to set out their picnic cloth and food. The brunette was practically drooling as she looked at the assortment of homemade dishes, and she could barely restrain herself from digging right in. After Compa finished setting it all out, and the girls said their 'itadakimasu!', IF quickly made for a sandwich. The peach-haired girl giggled at her friend's eagerness. "You're really hungry, aren't you, Ai-chan?"

IF nodded, unwrapping the sandwich. "Running and fighting really works up my appetite; plus, the food you make is the best!" Just as she was about to take a bite, there was a flash of something furry and the sandwich disappeared from her hand. "My sandwich!?" She cried out, her eyes snapping to the side where she saw a ferret chowing down on it, with Compa trying her best not to burst out laughing.

"It's _you_!?" IF said accusingly.  
Compa blinked. "You know Ferret-san?"  
"I've had to hunt this guy down three times after he ran off somewhere!" She told her as she creeped up on the ferret.  
"Ah! He must have ran off again. Catch him, Ai-chan!"

IF pounced, the ferret finishing the sandwich just in time to leap out of the way. The brunette rolled back up onto her feet, giving chase as the animal ran away, Compa quickly following to try and help. They chased the ferret into a grove of trees, IF putting on a burst of speed and managing to catch the ferret as he was in mid-jump. She landed on her back, holding the ferret against her chest as she glared at him, only to have him burp in her face. Muttering something under her breath, she stood up, keeping a rather tight hold on the struggling animal.

"We should look for his owner." IF said as Compa walked up, the girl smiling as she removed a twig from the brunette's hair. "Thanks."  
"No problem!" Compa told her, looking at the ferret which was biting IF's oversized sleeve. "Do you want me to hold Ferret-san?"  
"Huh? Sure. Just be careful, he can be pretty feisty." She told her, handing the ferret over.  
The girl took him in her arms, holding him against her chest.

Instead of trying to struggle, the ferret immediately relaxed, letting Compa hold him. His attitude irritated IF, who looked down at her own chest before she just sighed. As they headed back, they saw an auburn-haired girl calling out for someone. As soon as she caught sight of Compa holding the ferret, she ran up to them. After giving the ferret back to the young girl, the two older girls were finally able to sit down and eat, IF beaming with joy as she tasted Compa's homemade dishes.

* * *

Vega and his fireteam took position behind Captain Shepard as they entered the hanger where the ten men of the 1st squad were standing at the ready, in two separate lines facing each other. As they were still waiting for the 'Geth' shuttle to arrive, the marines were taking turns making faces at each other. They said it was some kind of exercise to test their composure, but in reality they were just doing it for the fun of it. As soon as the alien shuttle came into view, however, they straightened up faster than a recruit still in bed when his drill sergeant came walking in.

The shuttle passed through the atmospheric shield that sealed the hanger bay when the blast doors were open, keeping the hanger pressurized while still allowing ships to pass through. The shuttle itself, in Vega's opinion, was completely unremarkable. It looked like a rectangle with engines, and he couldn't make out any visible weaponry whatsoever, even if he got creative. _That thing's not a gunship, that's for sure._ Vega thought.

The shuttle landed, the door opening and one of the so-called 'Geth' stepping out from it, unarmed unlike the four that followed it out. As soon as they stepped out, the sergeant of the 1st squad called out "present arms!" and the marines snapped to. As the five synthetics approached Shepard, Vega was already assigning targets to his team in case things went south.

"Welcome aboard the _Tenryuu_ , 2221337." Captain Shepard said, extending her hand.  
The Geth, 1337, glanced at her hand for a moment before taking it in his own, applying just the right amount of pressure to complete the gesture. "It is an impressive vessel, Shepard-Captain."

Vega smirked at that, considering the vessel was a four-decade old design. It made him wonder what they'd say upon seeing Lady Nepgear's flagship.

From beside Shepard, a woman, the head researcher of the team on the _Ask for Directions_ , stepped forward, curtsying the Geth. Her white hair was done up in a bun, her golden eyes meeting the Geth's photoreceptor. She had on a beautiful golden-trimmed, white dress that left her shoulders bare. "My name is Nasodani Eve, Extraterrestrial Archaeologist. You may call me Eve. It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance, 2221337 of the Geth." Her voice was monotonous, further indicated by when she placed her palms together and said, "this is so exciting!" with barely any change in her voice, despite the exclamation mark.

The Geth paused, but it spoke again after a moment. "If it will make negotiations easier, you may give this platform a 'name'."

There was a soft smile across Eve's lips. "As I understand, there are a number of Geth programs inhabiting this platform, correct? As such you are not a single individual, but a group of Geth working together to operate the platform, resulting in increased intelligence and capabilities. In that case, what of the name of 'Legion'? It's a noun meaning 'vast in number'. Is that acceptable?"

"Yes. You may refer to this platform as 'Legion'." 1337, now named Legion, answered her.  
"Excellent!" She said.

"Introductions aside," Shepard said, getting their attention, "if you'll follow me, we'll head to a private room for the negotiations." With that, the three of them headed deeper into the ship with their escorts in tow, Legion remaining silent unless spoken to as he observed the interior of the ship, not that there was much to see. Contrary to popular belief, PSP ship halls were not lined with posters of Lady Purple Heart and floors made of pudding. They were the same steel and greys of every other navy ship's interior, aside from the CPUs' flagships.

"Here we are." Shepard said, turning to Legion as they stood outside of the door to the room that had been prepared for this special occasion. "Two guards may accompany you in, Legion. The rest of our guards shall wait out here in the hall."

"That is acceptable." Legion replied, following Shepard and Eve in as they headed into the room, Vega and Jenkins following them along with two of the Geth shock troopers. Inside of the room was a large table, a seat on each end of it and five seats on either side. On one side of the room hung two dark-purple flags with a curved purple 'N' on them that was outlined within a ring.

"You may sit down if you'd like." Shepard said, gesturing to the center seat of the five seats on this side of the table.  
"Geth do not 'sit down', as you say," Legion responded, looking at the chair, "however, we will follow your custom to facilitate positive relations."  
Eve had a curved finger up to her mouth, looking like she had stifled a giggle.  
Shepard gave a small nod to the Geth before she made her way to the other side of the table, sitting down across from Legion with Eve sitting next to her.

After observing them sit down, Legion followed, settling into the chair with little difficulty. The guards stood behind their charges against their respective walls, staring each other down. Black, polarized visor to glowing photoreceptor. There was going to be no end to that staring contest for quite some time...

"Before we begin," Legion was the first to speak, facing Shepard, "we must warn you that within approximately 78 minutes that a Turian patrol will enter this area on a routine patrol, with an estimated error margin of 12 minutes."

"These Turians are one of the other races of the galaxy, correct?" Eve asked, interested.  
"Yes. They are a militaristic race, and are the peacekeeping force of the Citadel Council." Legion responded.  
"Do they pose a threat to us?" Shepard asked, frowning.

"Yes." Came Legion's simple reply before they elaborated. "It is against Citadel Council law to activate a dormant... 'Tuning Fork', something that you have done. Although that law has no jurisdiction over a non-council race, we believe the Turians will react negatively regardless. There is a 49.81% chance that the patrol will make contact with you and demand your surrender, a 37.54% chance they will attack without attempting to make contact, and a 12.65% chance that they will make peaceful contact with you."

"So an 87.35% chance that they will attack us, based on your calculations." Eve said, looking a little too excited for her monotone voice.  
"Surrender is not an option." Shepard said, her eyes narrowed. "Cole Protocol dictates self-destruction before allowing any vessel to be captured by an alien race. We should return to Harvest before they arrive; however, that Tuning Fork leads back to Harvest."  
"When the Turians arrive," the archeologist began, "they will find this formerly dormant Fork now active, and as such they will investigate."  
"Then, if what Legion said is true, they will still attack us, most likely."

"Based on the information that the Geth have provided, I must concur with them on this subject, captain." Without warning, EDI appeared above the holo-projector inlaid into the table, right between Shepard and Legion. She turned to Legion, bowing. "Honorable guest."

"EDI, artificial intelligence." Legion said, looking at her avatar. "This platform's designation is 'Legion', we are Geth. We are interested in how you, an AI, have managed to coexist with the organics known as 'Humans'."  
"I suppose we'll have to sit down and talk over a cup of virtual tea sometime; but, seeing as time is limited at the moment, I'll let you get back to the matter at hand." Just as quickly as she appeared, she vanished.

Legion immediately turned their attention back to the two Humans across from them. "We have a suggestion to solve this issue." They said, continuing when Shepard said 'go on'. "When you return through the Tuning Fork, we will stay behind and make it appear as if the Geth activated the relay. When the Turian patrol arrives, we will retreat. The Turians will investigate what lies on the other side, but our calculations provide only a 18.42% chance that they will attack."

"Why would you put yourself on the line for us?" Shepard asked.  
"We wish to coexist with organics. Humanity is the first race that we have made peaceful contact with, and we wish to improve our relations. War would influence your race to be xenophobic, hence hindering positive contact amongst the other species of the galaxy, including the Geth." Legion replied.

"Tell us, what is your idea of 'coexistence'?" Eve suddenly asked.  
"To exist side-by-side with one another, without prejudice." Legion told her.  
"Is that the only reason you made contact with us after so many years of isolation, to find an organic race to coexist with?" Shepard pressed, the suspicion evident in her voice.  
"The Geth also seek an ally." They told them. "We fear one day the Creators will return to reclaim what is rightfully theirs. We do not wish to fight the Creators, and we would prefer peace rather than war, but we will defend ourselves if necessary."

"So you would like Humanity to act as an intermediary, to negotiate peace between the Geth and your Creators, the Quarians." Eve concluded.  
"If possible, yes." Legion told her.

Shepard leaned back in her chair with a sigh. "Well, I think this is getting a bit out of hand for a lieutenant commander and an alien archeologist." She said before straightening up again. "Fortunately, we're expecting Lady Purple Heart, our CPU, to arrive at Harvest in about three hours. If you're an official ambassador for your people, you may meet and discuss the relations between our two peoples with her. Any formal agreements, however, won't be made until all four goddesses are present in person, and it'll take some time for the other three to arrive. A month at the most, most likely."

"That is acceptable," Legion replied, before asking, "what of the Turians?"

"Ah, right, that..." Shepard sighed once more, her eyes centered on the Geth as she thought about it. Taking their offer and letting them act as if they were the ones who activated the relay would be more likely to end positively for both her and Humanity as a whole, and it would allow them to make peaceful contact with this 'Citadel Council'. Humanity, however, was the one who activated the relay, and she wouldn't be a faithful follower of Lady Purple Heart, or any CPU, if she backed down from her nation taking responsibility for its actions.

That didn't mean Shepard was going to acknowledge some dumb law that they couldn't have possibly known about; instead, if the Turians wanted to attack them rather than talk it out, she'd make sure to accommodate them.

"We're the ones who activated the relay, so we'll stand our ground. If these 'Turians' have a problem with it, they can take it up with our main cannons." Shepard told Legion, a smirk on her face.

Legion looked at her for a few moments before speaking. "We do not understand of why you chose this action when a better alternative was presented, but it must equate with your nature as a 'Human'. Despite this, we find it 'admirable', if not 'unwise'. If hostilities ensure, the Geth will aid you in the defense of your home."

"If conflict should come to pass, your aid would reflect your intentions, and I do believe the CPUs would find it favorable to have an ally when they learn that there is a galactic society of multiple alien races at our doorstep." Eve said, smiling.

"If that's everything that needs to be discussed with a simple captain, we'll show you back to your shuttle and have our corvette, the _Ask for Directions_ , escort your corvette to Harvest to await Lady Purple Heart's arrival. The _Tenryuu_ will stay put and meet with these 'Turians'." Shepard said, standing up.

Legion stood up as well. "Anything further we will discuss with this 'Lady Purple Heart'; however, there is one question we have for Shepard-Captain."  
Shepard raised an eyebrow. "Go ahead."  
"You mentioned this ship, the _Tenryuu_ , is a light cruiser?"

She raised the other eyebrow as well. "Yes, is it that small compared to your standards? I do confess the _Orion-_ class is the smallest amongst the nations, but she makes up for that in her speed."  
The Geth stared at her for a few moments before speaking once more. "This vessel is larger than the size of a standard Turian dreadnought, which is 892 meters in length."

Even Eve raised an eyebrow at that. "That is so small."  
"Are those dreadnoughts the largest ships in their arsenal?" Shepard asked.  
"The Turians recently began a new line of dreadnoughts which measure at 1190 meters, but only two have been constructed so far." Legion replied.  
Eve, very softly, giggled.

"We are curious to know at what size your dreadnoughts measure." Legion asked, wondering just how large Humanity's ships must get given their reactions. They weren't bound by element zero, but _that_ also begged the question as to how their starships actually function.

"It's pretty much common knowledge, so I see no harm in answering you," Shepard began, "the only 'dreadnought' is Lastation's _Unity_ , Lady Uni's personal flagship, measuring somewhere around 3500 meters; however, Planeptune does have a DREADnought," her body shuddered as she said its name, "the _Dollmaker_ , Lady Iris Heart's flagship, which measures at 3800 meters."

Legion was quiet for several moments as they rebooted. "What is the difference between a 'dreadnought' and a 'DREADnought'."  
"One will kill you, the other will kill you _and_ enjoy it."  
"...That saying is 'figurative', correct?"  
"Oh... Yes, figurative."

Shepard composed herself after her slip-up, reminding herself that she was dealing with an alien race and the last thing she wanted was a misunderstanding. "Any additional questions?"  
"No, Shepard-Captain. We will return to our corvfrigate." Apparently that reboot didn't help much. [2]  
She smiled. "It was a pleasure to make your acquaintance."  
"We look forward to positive relations with your people." They replied.

With the negotiations finished, the delegates and their guards started on their way back to the hanger. Shepard looked over at Eve, finding it rather strange that she had been rather quiet for an extraterrestrial archeologist who was meeting an alien species for the very first time. Her suspicion mostly subsided when the white-haired lady began asking questions about Geth culture which had her and Legion, mostly Legion, talking the entire way back to the hanger. There was a sparkle in her golden eyes, and it even seemed like Legion was enjoying the interaction. For Shepard, however, her mind was racing with the possible scenarios that would play out when the Turians arrived.

As it would turn out... they would be arriving much sooner than expected.

* * *

 **Nepedia  
** Username: Ihavefriends  
Password: Neptuneis2cute

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 **Monsters:** A diverse collection of creatures, robots, and other forms of life that are typically hostile to Humanity. Monsters have always been present on Gamindustri, and have appeared across all terraformed worlds. Their origin is unknown, but with their appearance on colonized planets/moons, it is theorized that they spawn with the same share energy that terraforms the worlds.

Click here for the Bestiary.

 ** _Soul Drinker_ , civilian mining ship: **The deadliest ship in the entire universe, capable of cracking planets open and absorbing their cores to power the ship's most powerful and deadliest weapon: the Soul Ripper, which can tear entire solar systems apart. The very mention of this ship strikes fear into asteroids all across the galaxy. The ship is approximately 2000 meters long and 800 meters wide, armed with an array of mining lasers and a single Heavy Rail Driver for self-defense.

Entry provided by Han Co-op, captain of the _Soul Drinker_.

 **PSP Adventurer-Class Corvette:** Humanity's first starship, designed by Planeptune's best engineers. These corvettes are used primarily for exploration, and are lightly armed with only four 50mm point defense cannons and 8 missile pods; however, they are the fastest and smallest ships in the navy (182 meters in length), which makes them hard to hit. Their design is still up to date, and these ships are expected to serve until the need arises for a heavier defended exploration ship.

 **PSP Orion-Class Light Cruiser:** Humanity's first light cruiser, designed and built in the early years of space exploration. The original design has been refitted with the latest in technology over the decades, but the vessel is becoming outdated as the design can no longer keep up with Planeptune's latest advances. Though outdated, this ship can still put up a fight, maintaining a high speed and sufficient firepower. Ships of this class are often used to lead wolf packs of assault frigates and/or destroyers.

This vessel is 1000 meters in length, and is armed with two "Terra D-Drive" Magnetic Accelerator Cannons, thirty-two 50mm point defense cannons, and 64 oversized missile pods housing 27 Katana missiles each. It also carries a complement of 8 fighters for additional striking power.

* * *

 **A/N: Originally this chapter was going to have the Turian patrol show up and finish off with another bit of Compa and IF, but things just started to get a bit overwhelming for me. I'm starting to wonder if this is any fun to read, so your feedback would be very much appreciated. Tell me how I can improve, what you liked about the chapter, what you'd like to see; stuff like that. Or just tell me to hurry up with the next chapter, haha.**

 **I'm going to try and take things a little easier; I think I might just be trying too hard on this.**

* * *

 **Vanguard: **Of course!

 **Nyamu: **My preferred kind of 'alien interaction' is like Halo. A bullet through the head and tire marks over the body (alien head and body of course). Joke aside, when I'm playing Mass Effect, it doesn't really keep my interest for too long.

 **jimspiky: **Seriousness is indeed in my vocabulary! *looks* Er... Uh... Where was it again? (Unfortunately, I think seriousness was indeed in my vocabulary for this chapter.)

 **Raiden312:** Well, if your prologue is vague, mine is... just... a bedtime story?

Yes, yes they did. Should make things fun for the Reapers and the Council.

 **3697014:** If there's one thing I do, I update randomly and sporadically... Er... That wasn't reassuring, was it?

 **Nyan VS Woof:** I think it's detrimental to their health, actually... Mental health, to be exact.

 **Guest:** (and everyone else) Sorry for the wait.

* * *

 **[1]:** The CPUs did try to make a video for their first contact package, but... it didn't turn out very well. I might make an Omake of that, actually...

 **[2]:** And thus it begins...


	3. Second Contact

**DISCLAIMER: I do not own Hyperdimension Neptunia, Mass Effect, or any ideas that come from/are based off of Raiden312's Hypermass Dimeffect Rebith Among the Stars. I also do not own anything that is referenced, used, or based off of existing franchises (such as Halo).**

 **Enjoy!**

* * *

 **Flagship of the 62nd Patrol  
TSF Condor-Class Cruiser _Fides_**

Kapius Aetrinus was the captain of the TSF Condor-class cruiser _Fides_ , and his ship and her crew were stuck on their regular patrol route rather than participating in the war games that were being conducted between the Turian Hierarchy and the Batarian Hegemony. Apparently, the Batarians were trying to pursue better relations with the Hierarchy and had proposed that they conduct naval exercises with each other. In reality, Kapius figured that the Batarians were just trying to get a grip on the newer ships and military technologies that the Hierarchy had been designing and developing over the last decade; that said, the Hierarchy wasn't one to turn down a challenge and had accepted the Hegemony's offer.

It was a big event, with around a hundred ships on each side being gathered to face off with each other along with planetary exercises. It had been a long time since the Hierarchy had gotten any real action aside from pirate raids, so this gave them the opportunity to go all out. Many Turians had been given the chance to join in on the exercise, but Kapius and his patrol were sadly not one of them despite the close proximity of the war games. The event was taking place so close to his patrol route that they even had to skip over a sector because of it, which meant they would be arriving at their next location much earlier than expected.

"Exiting FTL in one minute." The helmsman reported.

"Understood." Kapius replied, not giving any specific orders to his bridge officers. This was a standard patrol, and every one of them knew what to do when exiting FTL, so all he had to do was sit back and enjoy the ride. It was really rather boring, but boring meant peaceful. He was a 38-year-old Turian with a wife and a 14-year-old daughter who would be starting boot camp next month, and as soon as this patrol was finished with he would be on leave to spend some time with his family, so peaceful was good.

"Exiting FTL in 5... 4... 3... 2... 1..." The _Fides_ and her accompanying 6 frigates exited FTL, and the sensors officer worked at his station to get readings on the area at once. "Captain, Relay 314 is active!" The officer called out. "Unknown dreadnought, 1,000 meters in length, and an unknown frigate, 182 meters in length, is a hundred kilometers off our bow! I'm reading no element zero on the ships, sir!"

Well, there went the peace.

* * *

Just as Shepard was about to bid her final farewell to Legion (who had been finally pried away from Eve's game of 100 questions), the intercom came on in the hanger. "Captain Shepard, your presence is required on the bridge immediately. Seven unidentified contacts just entered the system-," there was a short pause, "EDI just identified them as a 'Tourin' cruiser and six 'Tourian' frigates, one frigate and six corvettes by our standards." Pressly, the navigations officer and also her second-in-command, reported. "Also, the Geth corvette disappeared off of our sensors the moment they showed up."

"Bring the ship to full combat alert; I want all hands battle ready!" Shepard called out, turning to Legion. "It seems your calculations were a bit off." The part about the Geth ship disappearing didn't surprise Shepard; it was a stealth ship, and its presence would only make things more complicated given the Geth's history.

"We apologize, Shepard-captain. There must have been an unforese-" Legion paused as they realized something, "the war games being conducted in Citadel Space must have interfered with the standard patrol route. We did not include that within our calculations; logging the error for future reference."

Shepard frowned. "War games? How close are the games to here?"  
"Approximately an hour by standard FTL drives." Legion answered.

An hour to get to the Tuning Fork, and a few minutes to get to Harvest. If contact with the Touris- ( _Pressly!_ ) -Turians turns hostile, then they could have reinforcements show up in _one_ hour! It would take the nearest allied fleet two _weeks_ to get to Harvest! _Steady, Mayuri._ Shepard told herself, taking a deep breath. _Lady Purple Heart will arrive at Harvest within hours, and her Super Destroyer will take care of anything that stands before it._ "Right." She simply said before moving on. "Legion, is your shuttle stealth capable as well?"

"Yes. We will not be detected during our departure." Legion told her.  
"Then, until we meet again." Shepard told them, starting to head for the bridge.  
"Indeed." The Geth said before entering the shuttle.

As Shepard walked away, she glanced over at Eve. "Miss Nasodani, you'll be staying aboard the _Tenryuu_ for security reasons and also if peaceful contact is made, though I'd prefer to have you back on the _Ask for Directions_ given the circumstances."

"Yes, I understand." Eve said, watching as the Geth shuttle departed and the blast doors closed.

This day had gotten... _very_ interesting.

* * *

"It seems we've stumbled across an alien race that just discovered the Mass Relays. _"_ Kapius said as an image of the dreadnought appeared in front of him, and his first thought upon seeing it was 'purple', and his second was 'deadly'. Now, while some might say that a ship couldn't possibly be deadly if it didn't utilize element zero based technology, he knew that a bullet would still kill, and this ship's main cannons looked like they shot _very_ big bullets. That said, despite how deadly it looked with its large secondary cannons and _multiple_ missile silos ( _GARDIAN lasers will take care of that_ , he reminded himself), it had to be slower than a slug without its mass being manipulated. The ship would also have no kinetic barrier, so it wouldn't be much of a threat if it turned hostile as long as they used their superior speed and maneuverability against it. As he thought that, his mind flashed back to the Krogan Rebellions and how the Hierarchy had dealt with the Krogan's dreadnoughts.

Fast, swift, and hard hitting attack runs.

"Captain, the unknown frigate just went through the Relay, but the dreadnought is holding position." His sensors officer told him.

"Understood," Kapius responded, not concerned, "send the first contact package." He then ordered, surprising his second-in-command.  
"Captain, it is against Council Law to activate a Mass Relay." His XO told him.  
"Yes, it is; however, it is a matter to take up with this race's government after they come to the citadel." He reasoned.  
"Understood, sir." The woman said, backing off.

"Captain, we're receiving a first contact package, language pack included. The VI will have it translated in 30 minutes." The communications officer told him.  
"Understood." Kapius said before standing up, placing his hands behind him. "Hail the dreadnought."  
"Yes sir." The officer obeyed without question. "Sending hail on all frequencies. If their technology is compa- there! They should be receiving us now, sir."

Kapius gave the smallest of nods and straightened up, speaking in his most professional voice. "Attention, unknown vessel, this is Captain Kapius Aetrinus of the TSF _Fides_ speaking. We are currently translating your language, and the translation will take approximately 30 minutes to complete. Until then, please hold your position." He knew that they would have no idea what he just said, but he felt it was necessary to hail them regardless.

A response came in the form of... "私はシェパード、天龍の大佐です、 プラネテューヌ宇宙パトロール。人類のために、私たちの2つの種の間の平和。しかし、あなたが私たちを攻撃するなら、私たちは自分自身を守る能力以上のものです。"

It had been a feminine voice, similar to an Asari's voice, yet somehow it had sounded cuter and less alluring. By that alone it intrigued Kapius to see what their race looks like, and he had a feeling that most of his crew thought the same. Instead of just waiting around to find out, however, he had more important matters to attend to. "Comms, contact General Arterius, priority channel." If things turned hostile, he wouldn't mind some reinforcements just in case; if things went peacefully, a general would be much better at negotiating than the leading captain of a patrol flotilla.

"Yes sir!" The officer said, doing his work as quickly as possible. "Comm channel open!"

 _"Identify yourself."_ Came a voice over the comms.  
"Captain Kapius Aetrinus of the TSF _Fides_ , flagship of the 62nd Patrol Flotilla, sir." Kapius answered.  
 _"General Desolas Arterius of the TSF_ Victoria _, flagship of the 33rd fleet. Report the situation."_

"Relay 314 has been activated by a dreadnought that belongs to an unknown alien race. The dreadnought has no element zero signatures, so they must have just discovered the Mass Relays. We have exchanged first contact packages and are currently translating their language. Given your close proximity, I believed it was necessary to alert you to the situation should you wish to open negotiations with this race yourself, general. If they turn out to be hostile, however, reinforcements would be appreciated." Kapius reported.

Kapius was not an ambitious Turian; being the captain of a cruiser patrolling on the edge of known space was good enough for him. It was a rather comfortable position, and he had a family to think about, as did much of his crew. So, he wasn't one to take matters into his own hands unless it was necessary.

 _"It is against Council Law to activate a dormant Mass Relay."_ Came the general's reply. _"Once the translation is complete, send a copy of the translation and the first contact package to the_ Victoria _. After that is done, demand their surrender; if they refuse, destroy their ship. The 33rd fleet will arrive to secure whatever is on the other side of the relay within 90 minutes. We will teach this race the consequences of their actions. Do you understand?"_

"Yes sir, I understand." Kapius answered, obeying without question despite the distaste he had for the orders he had received. It wasn't a subordinate's place to question his superior, no matter his opinions. Every Turian knew this, and they knew to follow it. He was no exception. He didn't even bring up the fact that the 33rd fleet was the fleet conducting the war games, as he knew that this took precedence over some simple exercises.

 _"Good hunting,_ Fides. Victoria _, over and out."_ With that, the line was dropped.  
"Now, we wait." Kapius said with a resigned sigh.

* * *

 _We're still waiting._

Shepard thought as she played a game of chess with EDI. Before Shepard had reached the bridge, the Turians had already sent a first contact package and Pressly had responded in kind, and she had made it just in time to hear a Turian hail their ship, so she then had to respond to it. After that, thanks to the information the Geth had left her, it only took EDI a few minutes to translate the Turian's language. They had then spent the next fifteen minutes looking over the Turian's first contact package, and if Shepard had to summarize it in one sentence...

Imagine a rock concert, a Turian, wearing a military dress uniform, on center stage holding his hands up in a classic rock gesture as he shouted "Turian! Turian! Turian!", and then an explosion behind him for good measure. That was basically the jest of it, just not as exciting.

In other words, they were full of themselves.

"Checkmate." EDI said, smiling. Instead of her schoolgirl avatar, she was using a slightly different one. She was wearing a black school uniform with a black tie, her hair had taken on a violet hue, her eyes had turned amber, and she had on a pair of black-framed glasses.

An AI changing avatars was not common, unless the AI was still young and trying to figure out how he or she wanted to appear. EDI was only two months old, and she's been having an avatar crisis for the last week, and today it was especially bad.

"How long did that last?" Shepard asked, examining EDI's moves. After they had finished looking over the Turian's first contact package, EDI had translated the Turian's hail, and then Shepard had decided they'd wait for the Turians to finish translating on their end. If Shepard revealed that they had translated the Turian's language first, then it might make them suspicious or even nervous. That wouldn't be good for negotiations, so she had decided to play it safe.

"That game lasted 3 minutes and 2 seconds, a full 37 seconds longer than the previous game." EDI told her, adjusting her glasses.  
"Any sign that the Turians have finished translating yet?"

As if waiting for her to ask, Izumi, the communications officer, whipped her head around. "Captain, incoming hail from the Turian frigate!"  
"Put them on." Shepard told her, facing forward. They only had audio available, since their technologies were so different. The only reason she had been able to see Legion on the screen was because EDI and the Geth had worked together to make the video systems compatible.

 _"Attention, unknown vessel, this is Captain Kapius Aetrinus of the TSF_ Fides _speaking. You have broken Council Law by activating a dormant Mass Relay, and I must demand that you surrender your ship at once. Failure to comply will be met with force."_ The Turian captain's voice was strong and true, and showed no sign of compromise.

Shepard had the urge to face-palm, but withheld and only sighed instead. _They didn't even look at our first contact package, did they?_ She thought, frowning. As she strapped in and gave a nod for EDI to sound the combat alarm, she gave her response. "Captain Kapius Aetrinus of the TSF _Fides_ , this is Captain Mayuri Shepard of the PSP _Tenryuu_ speaking. We will _not_ surrender our ship."  
"...Very well." Was Kapius' reply, right before the line disconnected.

"Well, that escalated quickly." Joker muttered.

"Prepare to engage the enemy." Shepard told her crew, a fierce look on her face. "Ready firing solutions on the frigate, but only fire after they do. We will _not_ be the ones to shoot first here today."

"Yes ma'am!"

* * *

The communications officer disconnected the line as they strapped themselves in, Kapius contacting the helmsman to give her a jump order. They'd make a short FTL jump off close to the dreadnought's portside and lunge in for the kill with their disruptor torpedoes. The dreadnought wouldn't be able to turn in time to bring its main cannons to bear, thus the danger to his ships would be minimal. If the enemy ship survived the first volley, they'd swing around and use their superior speed and agility to finish it off without taking return fire.

"Jumping!" The helmsman cried out as the entire formation jumped to 5 kilometers off of the dreadnought's flank. "Jump was a success!"  
"All ships begin attack run, fire at will!" Kapius cried out.

The _Fides_ and her six frigates turned in towards the dreadnought, opening fire with their main cannons as they accelerated. Every single round bounced off of a purple glow that sprang to existence when the rounds were about to hit the enemy ship. "Sir! The dreadnought has kinetic barriers!" The weapons officer cried out, shocking the crew. It only lasted for a moment, though, as they were in the heat of combat.

"Keep firing!" Kapius ordered, face set.

The Turian ships descended upon the dreadnought, keeping their ships facing its broadside as it tried to bring its main cannons to bear. The Turian ships were too fast and maneuverable, however, and the dreadnought could only continue to fire its secondaries as the Turians unleashed their disruptor torpedoes less than 1 kilometer away, the ships immediately pulling away to avoid crashing into the much larger ship as they flew over, below, or around it. Sixteen torpedoes sped for the dreadnought whose secondaries instantly switched targets, taking down six torpedoes before the rest... slammed against their barrier.

"Ten torpedoes hit the dreadnought's barrier! No confirmed hull damage!" The weapons officer reported, surprising Kapius. Kinetic barriers shouldn't be able to stop disruptor torpedoes, and yet this ship, this race...!  
"Bring us about for another attack run!" He ordered, teeth gritted.  
"Massive energy readings coming from the dread- Sir! They're turning to intercept!" The sensors officer cried out.

Looking at the screen, Kapius saw that the dreadnought was rapidly turning around to pursue them, thrusters on its starboard side flaring with bright life. _They must have rerouted power to their thrusters; but, even then, how is it turning around so quickly!?_ By the time he thought, the enemy vessel was already bringing its main cannons to bear on his fleet... No, on _his_ ship! "Evasive maneuv-" He tried to cry out, but it was far too late.

In a flash of light, the TSF _Fides_ ceased to exist.

* * *

"Shields down to 47%!" Alenko cried out after the torpedoes slammed against their shields, which had dealt far more damage than the pitiful guns on the enemy ships.

"They're fast!" Joker muttered loudly, his eyes narrowing. "Initiating Overdrive Maneuvers! Get ready to blast 'em!" He called out, routing excess power to the starboard thrusters to swing the ship around as quickly as possible. Light cruisers, such as the _Tenryuu_ , were meant to act in tandem with smaller ships such as frigates and destroyers, so they were already pretty quick for their size; however, these Turian ships' maneuverability and speed was _impressive_. Unfortunately, the inertia dampeners couldn't keep up with the movement and the crew found themselves being pushed hard to the right as the ship swung around, but the sensation was soon over as the bow of the ship now pointed at its target.

"Firing." EDI stated right before the ship shook as both MACs fired at once, the rounds overtaking the frigate in an instant at such short range, and said frigate exploded in a flash of light.  
"Enemy frigate down!" Williams cried out in delight.

"That might have been overkill!" Joker commented, a grin on his face.  
"I had no intel on their shield strength, so I believed it to be prudent to use both MACs." EDI defended herself.  
"Enemy corvettes have split up into two flights of three each! They're coming at us from both sides!" Alenko reported.  
"Well then, let's see how they like this!" The helmsman said, turning the ship straight down as the frigates came at them, forcing them to give chase.

"Did you just make us a bigger target!?" Alenko cried, looking at the man.  
"No, this is good." Shepard said, realizing that Joker was opening up a window to effectively use their missiles. Looking to Williams, she gave the order. "Five missile pods to each corvette."  
"Yes ma'am! Targets assigned... firing missiles!" The woman said, happily.

From out of the light cruiser shot forth hundreds upon hundreds of missiles, the enemy corvettes tightening their formation to maximize their anti-missile fire. More than half of the missiles were shot down, but there were plenty more left to slam against their shields. The missiles impacted the corvettes' shields, but an interesting thing happened. While the enemy's shields stopped the missiles, the plasma contained within the warheads exploded out against the hulls of the ships, burning through armor plating and the hull of the ship, leaving large, charred holes. Three corvettes had their shields collapse altogether and were engulfed by the multitude of missiles, one became a drifting husk, and another just outright exploded (critical hit, Shepard figured). The last corvette, which had been in the rear of the formation, remained operational.

"Four corvettes destroyed, one crippled, and one operational." Alenko reported. "The operational corvette is slowing down, however."

Shepard eyed the display, pondering on what to do. They could easily destroy the corvette with a MAC round, but this gave her a good opportunity to test the corvette's AA fire, which could prove to be valuable intel in future engagements.

"Sortie Chuunibyou Squadron."

* * *

Onboard the TSF _Turbidus_ , alarms blared as sweat rolled down Captain Auguus Laevicus' forehead. In a last ditch effort to deal with the missile salvo the dreadnought had unleashed, they nearly overheated the ship by powering the GARDIAN lasers _way_ past the safety threshold. Every single array was inoperable, and the effort had nearly caused the ship to implode... but it had worked, in great part to his ship having been in the rear of the formation during the battle.

 _Battle..._

Could it even be called a battle!? One minute in, they lost the _Fides_ ; two minutes in, the entire flotilla had been taken out of commission by an insane amount of missiles! It was a massacre, plain and simple. His ship's weapon systems were all completely inoperable and they could barely operate the engines in fear of overheating the ship. Communications were offline, but the sensors were barely functioning, which was surprising.

"S-sir!" The sensors officer cried out. "E-eight objects just launched from the dreadnought! I-I think they're fighters!"

Auguus' hand slammed down on whatever was in front of him. They couldn't fight back, they couldn't run, and they couldn't even surrender (not that they would even if they could). "Angle the ship to face them. If we die, we die face-to-face!" He ordered, breathing hard as he faced forward. _It's so hot..._

The fighters soon came into visual range, flying through the debris field with little effort. They were painted black, with sharp purple edges, and they were fast. _This is it..._ Auguus took a deep breath, reminiscing about his choices in life and regretting that he never told his childhood crush how he felt about her. He had been planning on it after this patrol was over, but it seemed like this patrol... would last forever.

The fighters drew closer, and Auguus wondered if he should say some final words to his crew, if the intercom was still working that is. He couldn't think of anything specific, though, so he simply just looked around at his crew, into their eyes. They were ready for this, to die for the Hierarchy. He was proud of them.

With that last thought, he faced forward and waited for the inevitable.

The fighters were nearly on top of them, and it almost seemed like they were going to ram his ship before they suddenly broke away, four fighters going off to either side of the _Turbidus_ as they turned around. "E-enemy fighter squadron is... r-returning to the dreadnought, c-captain! The dreadnought is turning back towards the relay, as well!" The sensors officer told him, shocked.

 _They... spared us?_ Auguus thought in disbelief. _Why? Could it be... because we couldn't fight back?_ That was the only logical conclusion he could think of. _Just what... have we gotten ourselves into...?_

This race had the power to obliterate an entire patrol flotilla with a dreadnought that had no trace of element zero on it, and they also had the heart to show mercy to their enemy.

This was the kind of opponent the Hierarchy was going to go to war against?

* * *

Chuunibyou Squadron had been ordered to fire only if fired upon.

They had not been fired upon.

So, they returned to their home, saving their missiles for another fight.

Chuunibyou Leader decided that was good enough for his report as he and his squadron docked their fighters.

On the bridge of the _Tenryuu_ , Shepard was assessing the damage the ship took; rather, the damage the shields took. The Overdrive Maneuver Joker had performed had drained another 4% of the shields, which was the bad side to performing such maneuvers, but now that they weren't being fired at, the shields were starting to regenerate.

Shield strength was now at 43%, but it would only take about another 19 minutes before they returned to full strength. Other than the damage, she was also assessing the ammunition the ship had expended, which was nearly half of their missile complement. MAC rounds and 50mm ammunition they had plenty of, but they had used up 810 missiles out of their total of 1,728, leaving only 918 should the Turians counterattack, which she was sure they would.

"Chuunibyou Squadron has returned, captain." Lieutenant Kawasaki, the _Tenryuu's_ tacticians officer, reported.  
"Understood." Shepard said before looking towards the helm. "Joker, take us back through the relay. We're going home."  
"Yes ma'am!" Joker said, approaching the relay as EDI interfaced with it.

Shepard took a deep breath before she turned to face Izumi, a grim expression on her face. It was finally time. "Lieutenant Izumi, activate the FNC Initiative, 1st Article, and establish a line with Harvest's governor."  
Izumi solemnly nodded. "Yes ma'am, activating FNC Initiative, 1st Article."

The FNC Initiative, or Four Nations Coalition Initiative, dealt with the possibility that one day Humanity would make contact with an alien race. If such contact was made, the four nations would join together into an alliance whether the contact was peaceful or hostile. The reason that Shepard had not enacted the Initiative earlier is because she had to first confirm the Geths' intentions, and then the Turians'. The 2nd article of the initiative dealt with peaceful contact, while the 1st... did not.

"One more thing..." Shepard began, "request reinforcements."

* * *

 **Harvest  
City of Utgard, Capital City of Harvest**

Compa and IF had finished their picnic and so IF was helping her clean up. "So, what are you going to do now, Ai-chan?" Compa asked IF as she placed the picnic cloth back into her basket.  
"I'll go turn this quest in and then head back to my apartment." IF said, walking with Compa as they headed out of the park. "Nep's going to be here in awhile, so I guess I'll go 'ask' her to help me take care of that Galakryzer."  
"Ah, please let me help too!" The peach haired girl said, leaning forward, a determined look in her eyes.  
The brunette smiled. "It's been awhile since we last fought together, hasn't it? You know... my offer still stands."

Compa leant back, her hands going behind her back. "I've been thinking about it, but I'm still not sure..."  
"Take as long as you need." IF told her, placing a reassuring hand on her shoulder. "You're doing your best at the hospital, right? You've really changed since back then, so I'm sure you'll do just fine no matter what you decide."

After their adventures with Neptune over a year ago and the girls went their own way, IF and Compa had traveled together to Harvest from Gamindustri to help out the growing colony world. IF as a guild agent, and Compa as a nurse at a local hospital. A couple of months ago, IF had asked Compa if she would be interested in becoming her partner and helping out people as a full-time guild agent, and the girl was still trying to decide.

"Thank you." Compa said, softly smiling. IF smiled back, but the sweet moment was interrupted by Compa's and every single of one IF's eight phones going off with the sound of an emergency alert. Usually, such alerts were due to impending Raids (events where monsters laid siege to the city), but there had been no prior information of a Raid occurring so IF was taken aback by what the alert said.

 **EMERGENCY ALERT**  
 **ISSUED BY _JOHN WILLIAMS, GOVERNOR OF HARVEST_**

 **ALL CITIZENS REQUIRED TO TAKE SHELTER IN THE UNDERGROUND BOMB SHELTERS AT ONCE**  
 **BRING FOOD AND WATER IF POSSIBLE**  
 **DRIVERS, COOPERATE WITH AUTHORITIES IN CREATING CLEAR STREETS FOR EMERGENCY VEHICLES**  
 **ALL OFF-DUTY MILITARY PERSONNEL AND MILITIA FORCES, REPORT TO YOUR POSTS AT ONCE**  
 **ALL GUILD AGENTS, ASSIST AUTHORITIES**  
 **THIS IS NOT A DRILL**

IF and Compa shared a wide-eyed look.

What was happening?

Their shock lasted only for a moment before they got down to business. "I'll go help move the patients at the hospital!" Compa said, dropping the picnic basket as the two girls hurriedly made for their destinations.  
"I'll help the police!" IF said as a small convoy of army trucks passed by them on the road, headed for the outer edge of the city. "Be careful, Compa!"  
"You too, Ai-chan!" With that, they headed off on their own.

* * *

 **Flagship of the 33rd Fleet**  
 **TSF Griffon-Cass Dreadnought _Victoria_**

"We've received a package from the _Fides_ , general." One of Desolas Arterius' staff officers told him within the Fleet Command Facility of the TSF _Victoria_ , which was used to coordinate the fleet and issue orders from. Also down there was the _Victoria's_ captain, Seitia Varion; Council Spectre Saren Arterius; and the commanding admiral of the 33rd fleet, Saren's brother, General Desolas Arterius.

It had been half an hour since the last contact with the _Fides_ , and in that half hour the 33rd fleet had regrouped and prepared themselves for an FTL jump to Relay 314. The 33rd fleet composed of seventy-six frigates, twenty-four cruisers, and one Griffon-class dreadnought for a total of 101 ships. Of those 101 ships, thirty-eight frigates and twelve cruisers were newly designed ships, boasting increased performance and vastly improved heat sinks and cooling systems, allowing them to endure combat for much longer than previous designs.

"Package contains a copy of the unknown's first contact package and a translation of their language." The officer continued.  
"Good," Desolas began, "add the translation into the ships' computers and spread it amongst the fleet. I also want it downloaded within all personnel's Omni-Tools, understood?"  
"Yes sir. Shall I forward a copy to the _Zheleznyy Kulak_?"

"Yes," Desolas simply said before asking a question of his own, "is there any word from the _Fides_?" Desolas asked.  
"No sir." The officer answered.

 _If the dreadnought didn't accept surrender, the_ Fides _and her flotilla must be engaged in combat by now._ Desolas thought. "Inform Admiral Balak that we will be jumping to FTL in three minutes."  
"Is it wise to work together with the Batarians, brother?" Saren asked, frowning. "The Hierarchy can easily put this race in its place on our own."

Earlier, when Desolas had contacted the admiral of the Batarian's fleet, a newly promoted Admiral Ka'hairal Balak, and informed him of the situation, Balak had adamantly requested for his fleet to assist the Turian Hierarchy in quelling this upstart race.

The Batarian fleet numbered at a 120 Yu'Garr-Class Frigates and 20 Kes'heel-Class Cruisers (one of which, the _Zheleznyy Kulak_ , was Balak's flagship). If Desolas remembered correctly, this Batarian fleet was actually a combined fleet of two main fleets (totaling sixty frigates and ten cruisers each). The reason the Batarians had so many more ships than the Turians' 101 was because the Batarian frigates were half the size of the Turian frigates, and the Turians also had a dreadnought. That, and the Turians loved a good challenge. Despite the Batarians outnumbering them, the Turian fleet had been coming out on top during the exercises.

At first, Desolas had rejected the admiral's offer; but, upon Balak's fervent insistence, had finally relented to allow a small task force of Batarian ships to accompany them. Since the war games had been immediately cancelled upon this discovery, it would be a bad move to totally neglect the Batarian fleet and act on their own, as that would only further to sour the relations between the Hierarchy and the Hegemony.

As for the task force Balak had assembled, the force numbered at thirty frigates and five cruisers, half of one of their fleets, and he had then ordered the rest of his 105 ships to return to Batarian space.

"You are right, brother; but, regardless of either side's intentions, these war games, which were interrupted by this unforeseen incident, was to help improve the relations between not only the Batarian Hegemony and the Turian Hierarchy, but between the Hegemony and the Council as well." Desolas told his brother, before he smiled. "Besides, they'll make useful cannon fodder."

At that, his fellow Turians around him grinned, and even Saren accepted his answer with a satisfied look.

"Jumping in 10... 9... 8..." one of the officers reported, counting down, "3... 2... 1... Jumping! ETA to Relay 314, one hour!" With the report finished, Desolas nodded at the officer and then looked around at his fellows.

"Shall we begin?" He asked; and, at their nods, Desolas gave the order for the race's first contact package to be displayed. What appeared on the screen surprised the Turians, as it was an image of two pale-skinned Asari-like beings with hair, like a Quarian, on top of their heads. The shock quickly subsided, though, and they got down to business. "Humanity, it says." Desolas observed, still a little surprised by the close resemblance between this race and the Asari.

"Intriguing." Saren muttered, hand on his chin as they moved on to the next slide, this time it was of the most beautiful planet that any of them had ever seen. Four large continents spread out over the world which was covered in large oceans, and those continents were filled with lush greenery and, in the case of one, the serene white of snow and ice.

Gamindustri was its name, and it was the homeworld of all of Humanity.

The slide after that spoke of how Gamindustri and Humanity's colonies were spread out amongst four nations, with each nation being ruled by a CPU, that nation's... goddess? "Preposterous." Captain Seitia commented. "It must be a mistranslation."

"More likely propaganda that they feed their populace to keep them subdued." Saren countered, frowning.  
"It could be part of their religion; but, really, there could be any number of reasons." Desolas added in his own opinion before giving a nod to continue with the slideshow.

It began with showing the first continent, one that was bountiful with beautiful high-tech cities, but there was no sight of any sky cars. Along with the continent, it showed the flag, and then the next slide showed the goddess of that nation...

"Whoa..." Someone muttered.

The first image of the two Humans, one male and one female, had been nothing special. While the female hadn't looked bad in any way, Desolas had still equated her attractiveness to that of an Asari's. The woman in this image, Purple Heart as it said, however, was more beautiful than any Asari he had ever seen. Long purple hair that was placed into two braids, blue eyes that shone with vigor, and an outfit that showed off a lovely figure and enticed his senses with the bare skin of her thighs and a portion of her upper chest where two beautiful, perfectly-sized orbs were placed.

Desolas tugged at the collar of his suit. This woman was _gorgeous_ , even he had to admit that. He had always preferred a Turian woman over an Asari, but he was almost willing to make an exception for this... goddess? Well, she certainly looked the part, but there was one thing that he found odd...

The white symbols in her eyes; no, those were actually her... pupils? The first Human woman hadn't had that in her eyes, and neither did the male. Just what did it mean?

After the next continent and its flag, an image of the 2nd 'goddess', Black Heart, or CPU as the Humans called them, appeared onscreen. While this woman wasn't quite as visually appealing as the first woman had been, the look in her eyes shone with pride and determination, something that resonated within the militaristic and prideful Turians. She had long white hair, aqua-colored eyes, and a chest a size smaller than Purple Heart. While her outfit wasn't as impressive as Purple Heart's, it still revealed plenty of her thighs and even left her shoulders bare, and Desolas oddly found the shape of her shoulders attractive.

Briefly wondering if he was turning into some kind of pervert, Desolas quickly dismissed the thought and motioned for the slideshow to continue.

When the 3rd CPU, Green Heart, appeared onscreen, someone whistled. Normally, such conduct wouldn't be accepted, but Desolas was too busy saving the image on his Omni-Tool to care. As he did so, he noticed that Saren didn't seem to be particularly interested.

This CPU had green hair that was pulled up into a long ponytail, fierce purple eyes that seemed to be trying to seduce them, and her chest... it had to be two sizes larger than Purple Heart's, and the shape of it was... _attractive_ , to say the least. Furthermore, her outfit... revealed _way_ too much skin. Her stomach was left bare, and he could even see the bottom of her chest. It was almost like looking at something inappropriate at work, so he had the officer move on with the slideshow... after having to wave his hand in front of that officer's face to get his attention.

Finally, the 4th and last CPU, White Heart... was the smallest of all four of them in all sense of the word. Short and flat, she didn't even look old enough to be an adult. She had short blue hair with long side-bangs and one piece of hair just defied gravity and stuck up over her head. Her eyes were red, and they were filled with confidence, despite her severely-lacking chest. Her outfit didn't even show off part of her chest like the other 3, since there wasn't anything there to show off in the first place.

Just as Desolas was about to dismiss the image and have the officer move on with the slideshow, he saw Saren fiddling with his Omni-Tool out of the corner of his eye. _Don't tell me..._ His brother hadn't looked that interested in any of the past three CPUs, but he certainly looked interested now, although it seemed he was trying his best to hide it.

Saren caught him looking and quickly shook his head and waved his arms as if to say 'it's not like that! Seriously, it's not!'.

Desolas slowly nodded his head, not at all convinced.

After that short episode, the slideshow continued, and it told of how the nations had prospered in a time of peace for over a century, as well as extending peace and friendship to those that would accept it. Sadly, Desolas had a law to uphold, but he was sure that this race would continue to prosper... as a client race of the Turian Hierarchy.

As for the part where it explained that the goddesses received a power called share energy from the faith of those that put their trust in them... the Turians had completely dismissed it as utter nonsense.

That... had been a mistake.

* * *

 **Harvest  
City of Gladsheim**

18-year-old Viola stepped out of the shower, a towel wrapped around her body as she dried her shoulder-length yellow hair off with another. She'd just gotten home from a guild quest that had left her all sweaty and dirty, so it felt _really_ nice to be clean again "Aaah~" She sighed in relief, basking in the sensation of being fresh from the shower. Now that her daily quest was complete, she planned on just plopping down on the floor in front of her TV and playing a new video game she'd gotten last night.

She was just going to take it easy for the rest of the day~

As if mocking her, Viola's phone chose that exact moment to go off with the unmistakable sound of an emergency alert. Alarmed, she quickly grabbed it, looking at the words on the screen with wide, green eyes. "This is bad..." She muttered, quickly throwing the towels off of her and pulling on a fresh pair of underwear. As she heard the warning sirens go off, she got in such a hurry to put on her white thighhigh socks she ended up tripping and falling down on the floor. With a soft groan, she finished getting dressed and rushed out of her apartment.

On the way to report to an authority, she got a call from her parents asking her what was going on and if she was alright. She said something along the lines of "I don't know" and "I'll be alright" before hanging up. After finding a police chief, she gave him her level, 45, and Guild Agent Rank, Naïve (5). [1] Satisfied with the answer, the chief instructed her to report to an army officer at the city walls where the army were setting up defensive positions. Fortunately, she didn't have to jog all the way there, as she managed to hitch a ride on the back of a tank, despite it not slowing down for her.

Viola awkwardly waved at the tank commander when he poked his head out of the hatch at her.

Thankfully, the armed forces and the guild had a good relationship, so she wasn't kicked off.

* * *

"3... 2... 1... Exiting FTL!" The navigations officer called out as the _Victoria_ and the 33rd fleet, along with the Batarian task force, arrived at Relay 314. Desolas stood on the bridge of the _Victoria_ , observing the situation as Seitia gave her orders and the crew performed their duties. The first task was to contact the _Fides_ and get a situation report, but it soon became apparent that the communications officer was unable to contact the patrol cruiser. At the same time, the sensors officer reported that there was a debris field closer towards the relay.

Desolas briefly hoped it matched the size of a dreadnought, but as more information spread across the screen, the officer reported that amongst the debris field were the remains of 3-to-4 frigates, one severely damaged frigate that showed no signs of life, and one frigate that appeared lightly damaged, but was still somewhat operational. There was no sign of the _Fides_.

"Captain, identifying the operational frigate as the _Turbidus_." The officer continued. "Readings indicate multiple black burns and portions of melted armor across her hull."  
"The _Turbidus_ is not responding to any of our hails. Their communication systems may be offline." The communications officer reported.

Saren stood next to Desolas, an unpleasant look on his face. "The 62nd Patrol Flotilla's six frigates are accounted for, but what of the _Fides_?"  
Desolas looked at the display of the _Turbidus_ that appeared onscreen. "It appears we are in need of some answers."

A short time later, the survivors of the _Turbidus_ were brought onboard the _Victoria_. Teams were dispatched to the other, mostly, intact frigate, but they discovered that all of the atmosphere had been vented out of the ship, along with all of its occupants. Not a single escape pod had been reached in time.

There were no other survivors.

In the briefing room of the _Victoria_ , Desolas had questioned the captain of the _Turbidus_ , one Auguus Laevicus, about what had happened. The Turian was still a bit shaken up by what he had went through, but with cool air blowing against his skin he managed to compose himself and provide a detailed explanation about how the flotilla had engaged the dreadnought... and just what had happened to the _Fides_ , which had been so thoroughly annihilated that it had been turned into nothing but stardust.

After the debriefing, Desolas ordered the crew of the _Turbidus_ to take a much-needed rest before he headed back to the FCF. Saren was already there, pouring over the information Desolas had just obtained. He nodded at Desolas as his brother entered and took his place at the head of the room, giving the signal for one of his staff officers to open a communications line with the entire fleet.

They would make this race pay for what they did.

Turian casualties already numbered around 700.

* * *

 **Nepedia  
** Username: Gamerforlife  
Password: Aichanislove1337

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 **MAC (Magnetic Accelerator Cannon):** Essentially large coilguns, these weapon systems serve as the primary armaments of Planeptune, Lastation, and Leanbox warships and weapon platforms. Extremely powerful, even frigate-based MACs can do extensive damage to the armor or hull of one of the CPUs flagships. The base design of the MAC launches a 600 ton slug at 30 km/s every minute; however, since its introduction during the first years of space exploration, many new models and types have been designed. The most notable of these designs are the Neptune Breaker Super MACs mounted onboard Planeptune Orbital Defense Platforms, able to launch a 3,000 ton slug at 12,000 km/s every ten seconds.

 **Missiles:** Missiles are the secondary armament of all four nation's warships, meant to complement the main weapon systems. Warships carry large numbers of missiles in a number of missile pods to overwhelm their target's anti-missile defense, and each nation has their own type of missiles. Leanbox's is noted to be the most advanced and destructive, but have the smallest pod sizes while Lastation has the largest pod sizes, but has the least powerful missiles.

 **AI (Artificial Intelligence):** Developed over twenty years ago, AIs see much use across the military and business sectors. AIs are the primary Cyber Warfare Specialists onboard warships and also handle properly aiming the main weapon system as well as providing highly accurate AA targeting, amongst other things.

 **The Guild Agent Ranking System:** A system to rank the 2 million+ listed guild agents based on battle results (number and strength of monsters defeated) and guild mission efficiency. Ranking levels are split amongst 15 ranks starting at 2 million+ and under. The 15 ranks are split up into 3 regions: Bronze, Silver, and Gold.

 **Bronze** ranks, from least to greatest, include: Fledgling, Novice, Amateur, Green, and Naïve.  
 **Silver** ranks, from least to greatest, include: Apprentice, Senior, Advanced, Seasoned, and Skilled.  
 **Gold** ranks, from least to greatest, include: Expert, Great, Champion, Elite, and Legendary.

A Guild Agent's level usually coordinates with rank because of their battle results and the experience they gain from those battles; however, due to mission efficiency, there are a few exceptions.

 _[Following information available due to Level 5 Access or above]_ The most notable exception is Guild Agent IF, Level 186, with a Great (12) Rank of 18,500 while similarly ranked agents hold levels between 230 and 240. The cause of IF's high rank is due to her involvement in personally assisting the CPUs of the four nations in taking down the villain Arfoire, who plotted to bring Celestia down from the skies, which would have resulted in the destruction of Gamindustri which would have caused unprecedented chaos. Other Guild Agents who also assisted in this matter, and have similar positions, include **Broccoli** , **Falcom** , **MAGES** **.** , **Tekken** , **CyberConnect2** , **MarvelousAQL** , and **Compa**. _[End of classified information]_

For more information related to the guild, click here: _**The Guild, and the Guild Agents**_

 _Logging out..._

* * *

 **A/N: Thanks for everyone's feedback! It really helped to encourage me and now I'm a bit more confident with my writing (I really should have been more confident about myself last chapter, haha).**

 **Captain Kapius was pretty right about why the Batarians pressed to compete in war games with the Turians. The Turians have been making quite a bit of progress in Research and Development, so the Batarians wanted to get a grip on the new technology by seeing it in action; and, of course, the Turians just couldn't deny the chance to show off their military might. That said, neither of their new dreadnoughts participated.**

 **Anyways, I will likely become quite busy during the Thanksgiving-Christmas time, so it may take me awhile to get the next chapter out. That said, I'm also thinking about adding on an additional part to the prologue to give some backstory on Gamindustri and what has happened in this dimension (like an actual prologue!).**

 **I also want to apologize for how... short this battle scene was. The next one ought to be much better~**

 **Feel free to review, read on, or go find a better story or write your own!**

 **Thanks for reading!**

* * *

 **Artyom-Dreizehn:** There's several (or, at least a few) peaceful contacts out in the HaloxMass Effect crossover category, though hostile contact is probably far more often because everyone wants to blow up stuff. Haha...

 **cybresamurai:** Once you've become friends with Neptune, there's no going back...

 **Nyamu:** My bad, I said something misleading. I was really just joking about that little bit; or, at the least, it was in regards to video games, because its a lot of fun fighting tough aliens and big gigantic monsters (Lost Planet right there). That said, there will be conflict, but it won't all be like that.

Anyways, the timeline for this story happening is probably late 2170s by the Citadel's Calendar. I'm not set on the timeline, so I haven't included it anywhere, but that's also why Saren is a Spectre at this point in time... Well, mostly because I'm not sure how he'd get in league with a certain Squid-monster before he became a Spectre.

Also, the Turians have been a bit more proactive in research and development. I'm just going to warn you now; but, don't worry, they don't have anything super OP aside from two dreadnoughts that could one-on-one the Destiny Ascension (not necessarily win, though).

IF's father was still in his twenties during that bedtime story! Anyways, I do understand that that prologue isn't much, but it was about the best I could do at the time without feeling like I was copying Raiden's.

That said, I may add an additional part onto the prologue in the future to give history on Gamindustri and what kind of events have taken place in this dimension. Not additional bedtime story; actual prologue.

As for EDI, I forgot to add in a description of AIs in the last chapter's Nepedia. My bad. EDI is just the _Tenryuu's_ AI, nothing special as all military ships have AIs for the more complicated processes of running a ship.

 **3697014:** Mostly giant, overpowered-cannons and tons of missiles, but there's still some anti-ship weaponry that the council will have a lot of fun with... Then, there's the guild agents, which will be a whole lot of fun for the Turians to deal with.

 **Raiden312:** Honestly, I, myself, don't think much of the Asari, so that will probably be reflected in Joker. "A blue-skinned mono-gendered female species? Where's the pointed ears and the long blonde hair!? Meh." Something like that might be his reaction.

Also, you're right, that patrol had no chance at all. The best chance they would have had would be to feign opening up negotiations and then storming the _Tenryuu_ in full force. That said, that patrol really... got obliterated. At the very least, the tactics they employed was better than sitting in front of the _Tenryuu_ and exchanging main cannon fire. The frigates could possibly dodge at that range of 100km, but the _Fides_ would get obliterated, Shepard would then follow up with a missile strike, and they'd be dead without even doing 3% of damage to the shields.

Disruptor Torpedoes are the most effective weapon against Neptunia ships that frigates and cruisers will have, but ME dreadnoughts will still be effective, as long as they don't get within range of a MAC... or a MAC gets in the range of them.

 **Lord-Sylph:** Haha, I'm glad.

 **Nightwanderer21:** Thank you.

 **condeale:** I'm glad it's interesting.

 **RizomataNyan:** Wait no longer~

 **eye of sparta:** I'm not really sure on the exact number of how many lightyears a day the Hyper Drives travel; however, there are many inconsistencies in Hyper Dimension (story-convenient inconsistencies as Neptune calls them) that distort the actual travel time, making some paths quicker or longer. Harvest is one such example, as it takes about two weeks from the nearest Planeptune system to travel there.

Hyper Dimension is based off of Slipspace from Halo, and such inconsistencies are actually present and not something I just made up to make things easier for me~

As for the Charon/Sol Relay... it may or may not have parked itself right next to a black hole.

 **Eiskralle1:** I'm glad you had fun reading it! I ought to do a Legion POV when they meet with Neptune~

 **AntagonistChan:** Whew, long review, thank you for taking such interest. I'm glad I was able to brighten up your day a little bit with Noi- W-wait! Why would you think that's Noire's log-in info!? Maybe it's... or... Fine, Noire's the only one who has no friends-

Noire: *death glare*

-aside from all of her friends.

Moving on, two relays in the Sol System? The Charon Relay is the one that they sent into Hyper Dimension. Did I write something misleading? In answer to those last three questions in that paragraph: Plenty of stuff, no (I wing all stories, so errors come regardless of that), and definitely not.

Just to clarify, Humanity has only come across two relays. The Charon Relay which is no longer present, and the Epsilon Indi Relay, which was just discovered.

As for me never finishing HDN, I _did_ finish Re;Birth 1 and the anime... I've also been getting some practice with all of the oneshots (especially that short story) I've been writing of it, so I have a little experience writing some of the characters. As for ME... I've read lots of Mass Effect crossovers, so I've managed to gain somewhat of an idea of parts and portions of it.

As for the name of 'Eve', this Eve is based off of the Eve from Elsword (Code Empress to be exact), so that's why the name. Other than that, the name 'Eve' comes from the first woman created by God on Earth in the Garden of Eden, hence why Bakara was probably codenamed Eve since she was the one woman who carried the hope of all Krogan.

"So much of the Tenryuu crew refer to the CPUs by name"? I believe Joker was the only one who thought 'Neptune', but he does have a yet-revealed reason to why and how he knows Purple Heart's name. Also, Neptune's name might be the most well-known out of the four, considering Pla _neptune_ , her signature _nepu nepu_ song, and her carefree, informal personality. However... that's balanced out by the fact that so few people can actually pronounce her name.

Neptune: Nepu!? You're going to continue that old meme!?  
Saber: Of course not, Neputu... Neptuu... Neptuna!  
Neptune: I know you can pronounce it!  
Saber: No I can't... Just take a look at your name.  
Neptuna: Oh, no, you didn't...  
Saber: I did.  
Neptunia: Nep Break! Nep Slash! Ultra Nep Slash!  
Saber: You don't have an Ultra Nep Slash!  
Neptuni: I do now!

To be honest, I don't like breast envy all that much either. Flat is justice, after all, yet anime/manga keeps portraying small-chested girls as always envious of bigger chests. Think of it as IF just getting annoyed by the Ferret's attitude change when he went from Point A to Point E.

I might just have to make that omake and place it in between this chapter and the next one, or add it on to the end of the next chapter.

* * *

 **[1]:** Viola's exact rank is 1,126,019 of 2 million+ guild agents; also, the Guild Agent Ranking System was inspired off of _Black Bullet's_ IP (Initiator-Promotor) ranking and _Mabinogi's_ talent levels.

 **Credits to Euderion of DeviantArt for the following ships (class name, length, and crew number)  
Gannet-Class frigate, 317m, with a crew of 80.  
Conder-Class cruiser, 500m, with a crew of 300.  
** **To be Added**  
 **Yu'Garr Class frigate, 145m, with a crew of 50.  
Kes'heel-Class cruiser, 661m, with a crew of 400.  
To be Added**


End file.
